1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a remote driver board, and more specifically, to an improved remote driver board with modular characteristics, capable of being used in multiple locations without alteration of form, fit, or function. The remote driver board includes intelligent input/output connector circuitry molded therein, adapted for multi-level operation and multiplexing of input/output data.
The prior art discloses printed wire remote driver boards having integrated circuitry including connectors having a logic chip or circuitry within the printed wire board or in the connector itself. Such wire boards have a variety of applications. One application for such prior art wire boards is within an electrophotographic apparatus or machine.
Recently, in order to minimize maintenance costs by permitting the operator to replace worn out or exhausted processing units in electrophotographic apparatus, emphasis has been placed on incorporating one or more of the processing units of the apparatus in removable cartridges or units. The operator can readily remove each cartridge or unit when its operational life has been exhausted and insert a new cartridge. In addition, easier service and diagnostic access to internal subsystems of an electrophotographic machine can be achieved.
Within the electrophotographic apparatus, it is necessary to distribute power and/or logic signals between the various units, subsystems, and/or cartridges thereof. Traditionally, this has been accomplished utilizing conventional wires, wire boards (also referred to as printed circuit remote driver boards) and wiring harnesses in each machine to distribute power and logic signals between, for example, the central controller of the machine and a removable processing unit or electrical subsystem unit. A recent emphasis has been placed on replacing conventional wire boards and wire harnesses in copier products to achieve a so-called "wireless copier." Conventional wire boards and harnesses cause problems when replacing worn out or exhausted members within an electrophotographic machine. Such boards and harnesses may have to be handled or moved several times in making connections between wires of different assemblies, circuit boards, or other members within the electrophotographic machine to install or replace one or more of the processing units therein. Handling of the wire connected thereto, as well as the boards and the harnesses, is a highly labor intensive task, frequently requiring routing of the several boards and harnesses through channels and around components manually. The manual connection can potentially result in human error in the installation, which might not otherwise occur if the use of automated, particularly robotic, installation could be employed. In addition, automated installation would reduce the high costs of labor involved in the manual installation. Also, such wire boards and harnesses are less than totally reliable in producing their intended function. Furthermore, and with increasing sophistication of capabilities of such products, a plurality of wiring boards and harnesses may be required in any individual machine which can require a large volume of space, thereby increasing the overall size of the machine.
Prior art wire board devices lack flexibility and present difficulty in extending the capability thereof without costly additions of hardware and redesign, such as a need to add an increasing number of interconnecting lines and customized boards. Other difficulties include the inability to carry different modes or levels of signals within the connector, to adapt the connector to different classes of input/output devices such as analog and/or digital, or inability to adapt to different configurations, such as variable input interfaces or output drivers. Yet, another difficulty with such prior art devices lies in the complicated and time consuming manual assembly and incorporation thereof into a desired machine. Accordingly, there is a desire to provide an alternative to the conventional wire boards to overcome these difficulties.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The following disclosures may be relevant to various aspects of the present invention:
Electronics, May 26, 1988, Pages 77-78, entitled "Grooved Boards Challenge Conventional PC Boards", by Jerry Lyman, is directed to molded circuit boards using three-dimensional circuitry. The molded circuit boards have grooves and sunken pads molded in. Metallization within the grooves provides an electrical path along both the sidewalls and the bottom of the groove. Molded recessed cavities can house entire devices. Fine-pitch component leads can be inserted into the grooves for assembly and soldering.
Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/808,697 discloses a grooved interconnect for electrically connecting two members having conductive traces on respective surfaces thereof. The interconnect includes first and second hinge parts of electrically insulating material which are mutually pivotable when placed in a mating position. The hinge parts have mutually contacting electrically conducting grooved portions when the first and second hinge parts are in their mating position, and the electrically conducting portion are in electrical contact with the conductive traces on the respective surfaces of the two members. The conductive traces are arranged on the two members such that when the members are secured, the conductive wiring aligns with the desired wires or traces on interconnected assemblies.
Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/812,336 discloses an interface connector device for interconnecting a plurality of input/output devices including a signal bus connected to a control for multiplexing the signals between the control and the input and output devices. A bus interconnects a plurality of interface and connector devices, and each of the interface and connector devices includes address recognition circuitry as well as programmable configuration selection logic to configure the connector device to respond to a variety of input/output devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,206,962 discloses an electrical connector having electronic components contained within the connector itself providing data transfer from closely spaced pin arrays to outside related equipment while providing a logic interconnect capability inside the connector itself.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,397 discloses an interposer connector for surface mounting of a ceramic chip to a printed wiring board. The connector comprises a dielectric base member having top planar surfaces and bottom surfaces formed as a series of rectangular projections with recesses therein. The U-shaped contact sections are mounted onto respective projections and have dimples disposed in the recesses, thus securing the terminals onto the projections.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,607,170 relates to an interface between data communications equipment and data terminal equipment and in particular discloses a pair of pin connectors having a housing and multiple pins and a multiple conductor cable interconnecting the pins in the connectors, and an active signal circuit enclosed within the housing of one of the connectors wherein the signal circuit includes means for generating a time or clock signal for timing or clocking the flow of data signals to the interconnection device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,609,241 discloses a socket adaptable to the pin-out configuration of an integrated circuit. Printed circuit traces and plated through holes couple contacts on the first and second sides of a support member.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,308 discloses a programmable input/output connector module having a molded plastic base through which five bus wires extend. The molded base is equipped with channeled grooves into which five spring clips are housed and which makes contact with a corresponding bus wire at the bottom of the molded base.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,964 discloses a programmable connector module with a molded plastic base for mounting an IC chip. Tabs or punch holes located on the plastic base can be broken to disconnect an input circuit to the IC so that a logical 1 or 0, as desired, may be input into a terminal of the IC.
West German Offenlegungsschrift 2,647,796, to Zink, discloses a circuit board designed as the bottom of a casting which is produced by injection molding thermoplastic material so that the molded section has channels on the side for the printed wiring. Subsequent to injection molding, the thermoplastic material is activated and rendered electrically conductive and provided with a coating of a conductive material that forms the wiring traces. The circuit board has through holes which permit the insertion of wire therethrough connected to electrical components mounted on the opposite side (opposite the channeled wire trace side) thereof. The manufacturing process of the circuit board permits a high degree of automation, a three dimensional profile and the elimination of wiring operations.